Latest / Crime and Horror / Even the FBI couldn't crack his cryptic note - MrBallen

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Even the FBI couldn't crack his cryptic note - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you about a mystery that
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Speaker 1: is both incredibly haunting and incredibly weird. There are so
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Speaker 1: many clues and pieces of evidence in this mystery, but
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Speaker 1: they all basically point in different directions or in some
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Speaker 1: cases literally.
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Speaker 2: Defy the laws of physics.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in the story format,
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Speaker 1: get into today's story. Around one am on May sixteenth,
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Speaker 1: two thousand and six, a thirty five year old woman
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Speaker 1: named Alison Rivera bolted upright suddenly in her bed in
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Speaker 1: her home in Baltimore, Maryland. Her home security alarm was blaring,
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Speaker 1: but even though that was obviously pretty surprising, it didn't
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Speaker 1: really surprise her because the alarm had gone off at
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Speaker 1: almost the exact same time the night before, and so
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Speaker 1: now in the dark, Alison could see the shape of
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Speaker 1: her husband Ray as he grabbed a baseball bat. And
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Speaker 1: then Ray rushed out of the room and down the
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Speaker 1: stairs he went, and Alison quickly trailed right behind him,
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Speaker 1: And when the two of them got downstairs, near the
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Speaker 1: alarm still going off, they flipped on the lights and
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Speaker 1: they looked around, but Alison didn't see anybody inside of
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Speaker 1: their house and all the doors were shut, but when
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Speaker 1: she looked at one.
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Speaker 2: Specific window, she saw it was just slightly open.
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Speaker 1: And again this didn't totally surprise her because the previous night,
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Speaker 1: when their alarm had gone off, they had gotten in
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Speaker 1: touch with the police, and the police had looked around,
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Speaker 1: and even though they didn't find anybody, they discovered that
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Speaker 1: that particular window that was currently opened slightly had been
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Speaker 1: tampered with the night before, which set off the alarm,
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Speaker 1: and it apparently had happened again tonight. But the police
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Speaker 1: didn't think this was an attempted break in. They said
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Speaker 1: the alarm had probably been set off by a squirrel.
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Speaker 1: Now at the time, Alison and Ray had, you know,
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Speaker 1: thought that was pretty crazy that a squirrel had set
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Speaker 1: off the alarm here, but it seemed plausible, and the
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Speaker 1: police seemed pretty certain of it, and so they had
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Speaker 1: accepted it and just gone back to bed after you know,
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Speaker 1: turning off the alarm and.
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Speaker 2: Shutting the window again.
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Speaker 1: But now twenty four hours later, to be standing in
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Speaker 1: their house, the alarm's going off and clearly this window
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Speaker 1: has been lifted up again. It just seemed weird that
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Speaker 1: a squirrel's doing this. That just seems far fetched. Something's
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Speaker 1: off here, and so Alison and Ray they couldn't help
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Speaker 1: but feel like maybe the police were wrong, Maybe this
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Speaker 1: is an attempted break in by a person, not a squirrel.
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Speaker 1: In fact, Alison had this nagging fear what was maybe
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Speaker 1: going on here that she couldn't shake. She wondered if
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Speaker 1: someone might be out to get her husband, Ray, Ray
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Speaker 1: and Allison had recently moved to Baltimore because Ray had
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Speaker 1: gotten a job at this financial investment firm called Stansbury
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Speaker 1: and Associates that was in the city. Ray's actual job
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Speaker 1: was to write the firm's email newsletter, which gave advice
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Speaker 1: to subscribers about buying and selling stocks, but Ray didn't
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Speaker 1: actually know anything about investing. His background was in screenwriting
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Speaker 1: and freelance videography, not finance, and the only reason he'd
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Speaker 1: gotten the job was because one of his friends owned
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Speaker 1: the company and had basically hired.
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Speaker 2: Him as a favor.
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Speaker 1: So, even though Ray was sort of trying his best here,
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Speaker 1: some of the advice that he was pumping out in
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Speaker 1: this newsletter was terrible and people had very likely lost
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Speaker 1: money because of it. So it felt possible that maybe
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Speaker 1: one of these disgruntled subscribers could have found Alison in
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Speaker 1: Ray's address and was now.
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Speaker 2: Trying to get even with Ray.
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Speaker 1: But even though this seemed plausible, that theory was kind
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Speaker 1: of wild and conspiratorial, and so on this night, Alison
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Speaker 1: didn't say anything about these fears to Ray. Instead, she
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Speaker 1: just went over and turned off the alarm while Ray
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Speaker 1: did a sweep of the house and then also made
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Speaker 1: sure this window was firmly shut. And then afterward, Alison
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Speaker 1: asked Ray if maybe they should call the police again,
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Speaker 1: but you know, Ray just said no, He said, you know,
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Speaker 1: very likely it was just a squirrel, like the police said,
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Speaker 1: And so the house is safe.
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Speaker 2: We're okay, let's just go to bed.
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Speaker 1: And so, even though Alison felt pretty uneasy here, she
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Speaker 1: said okay, and the two of them went back to bed.
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Speaker 1: Early the next morning, Alison sat at the dining room
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Speaker 1: table and quickly ate the breakfast that Ray had made
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Speaker 1: for her. She was leaving that morning for a business
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Speaker 1: trip three hours away in Virginia, and she needed to
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Speaker 1: get on the road, so after finishing her food, she
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Speaker 1: put her plate in the sink, and then Ray carried
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Speaker 1: her suitcase out to her car for her, and then
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Speaker 1: she and Ray exchanged I love yous, and then al
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Speaker 1: got into the car and drove off, waving at Ray
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Speaker 1: as she left. Three hours later, Alison made it to Virginia.
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Speaker 1: She would spend the entire day working and then finally,
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Speaker 1: at about six thirty pm, she checked into the hotel
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Speaker 1: where she was staying. By this point, Allison was so
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Speaker 1: exhausted that she practically collapsed onto the hotel bed. All
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Speaker 1: she wanted to do was just check him with Ray,
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Speaker 1: watch a little TV, and go to sleep. So she
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Speaker 1: took out her phone and she called him. It rang
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Speaker 1: a few times but just went to voicemail. So Alison
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Speaker 1: waited and then.
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Speaker 2: Tried again, but the same thing happened, which was odd.
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Speaker 1: Alison wondered if Ray wasn't picking up because something had
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Speaker 1: come up with work or maybe family. I mean, normally
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Speaker 1: he would answer, and certainly he'd be expecting a call
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Speaker 1: from her around this time. But fortunately one of Allison's colleagues,
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Speaker 1: whose name was Claudia, was actually staying with them in Baltimore.
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Speaker 1: She was traveling through the area and so that night
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Speaker 1: she was going to be there with Ray. So Allison
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Speaker 1: called Claudia, who did pick up, and she asked Claudia
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Speaker 1: if Ray was around. So, Claudia said, was pretty surprising,
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Speaker 1: She said, a couple hours earlier, so between five and six.
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Speaker 2: O'clock, Ray had been at the house.
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Speaker 1: He'd been doing something on his computer down the hall
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Speaker 1: from the guest room where Claudia was staying, and from
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Speaker 1: the guest room, Claudia said she heard Ray's cell phone ring.
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Speaker 1: He picked up the call and a few seconds later
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Speaker 1: he said, quote, oh shit. Then Ray, literally, according to Claudia,
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Speaker 1: sprinted out of the house. Claudia heard him climb into
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Speaker 1: his car and he peeled out of the neighborhood. Claudia
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Speaker 1: said she had no idea where he'd gone, and he
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Speaker 1: still was not back. Now, obviously Allison was confused when
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Speaker 1: she heard this, but she did not immediately panic. She
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Speaker 1: figured that whatever had sent Ray running out of the
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Speaker 1: house was probably just an emergency with work or friends
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Speaker 1: or family, which could be bad, but she assumed Ray
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Speaker 1: would call her back and explain everything as soon as
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Speaker 1: he got a chance. And so Alison thanked Claudia, doing
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Speaker 1: her best not to give off any vibes that she
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Speaker 1: was worth, and then she hung up and began getting
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Speaker 1: ready for bed, and the whole time Alison is watching
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Speaker 1: her phone, waiting for what she is sure will be
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Speaker 1: a call from Ray.
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Speaker 2: The next morning, at.
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Speaker 1: Five thirty am, Allison woke up to the sound of
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Speaker 1: her phone finally ringing. She felt this immediate jolt of
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Speaker 1: hope that it was Ray calling to explain what was
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Speaker 1: going on, but when she looked at the face of
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Speaker 1: her phone, she saw it was actually Claudia calling. But
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Speaker 1: she figured, okay, maybe Claudia is with Ray and she
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Speaker 1: has an update that everything's fine and that this is
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Speaker 1: all going to be explained. And so Alison picked up
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Speaker 1: and she goes, hey, Claudia, is my husband back.
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Speaker 2: Is everything okay? And Claudia said.
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Speaker 1: You know, your husband has not come home yet. I
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Speaker 1: have no idea what's going on with him, but I
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Speaker 1: have to leave.
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Speaker 2: I have to go to the airport.
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Speaker 1: At this point, Alison couldn't even hide her worry in
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Speaker 1: her voice. I mean, she basically was completely panic stricken
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Speaker 1: what was going on with Ray? It was completely unlike
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Speaker 1: him to stay out all night, miss her calls and
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Speaker 1: still not be home. Like she had no idea what
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Speaker 1: was going on here. So she told Claudia, who at
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Speaker 1: this point is basically saying, do you want me to
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Speaker 1: stay and wait for your husband? She was sort of
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Speaker 1: insinuating this. Alison told Claudia, like, go ahead, go to
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Speaker 1: the airport, do your thing. I'm going to cancel my
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Speaker 1: work trip. I'm coming home. I got to figure out
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Speaker 1: what's going on with Ray. As soon as Allison was
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Speaker 1: off the phone, she packed up her stuff, she checked
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Speaker 1: out at the hotel, and began the three hour drive
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Speaker 1: back to Baltimore. As she drove, she did her best
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Speaker 1: to stay calm, but you know, she's calling Ray's cell
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Speaker 1: phone basically the whole time, over and over and over again,
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Speaker 1: and he wasn't answering. And then eventually when she would call,
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Speaker 1: it wouldn't even ring, it would just go straight to voicemail,
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Speaker 1: suggesting that his phone was turned off or maybe.
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Speaker 2: You know, had died.
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Speaker 1: And at that point Alison really couldn't control her panic.
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Speaker 1: I mean, she knew something's wrong here.
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Speaker 2: She had this theory that that had something to do
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Speaker 2: with her husband.
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Speaker 1: She couldn't prove it, she had no evidence, but it
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Speaker 1: just felt like something bad has happened here and she
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Speaker 1: had no idea what it was. And so Allison spent
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Speaker 1: the rest of the drive frantically calling Ray's workplace, his friends,
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Speaker 1: his family, asking everybody if they had heard from him,
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Speaker 1: or if they had called him and said something that
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Speaker 1: freaked him out the previous evening anything, But everyone she
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Speaker 1: spoke to said they had not seen or heard from Ray.
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Speaker 1: When Alison finally pulled onto her street, she had this hope,
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Speaker 1: this small hope, that she would get home and raised
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Speaker 1: car would be there, and Ray would be inside and
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Speaker 1: he'd have a story, they would explain this whole crazy thing.
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Speaker 1: But no, she got there, his car was gone, the
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Speaker 1: house is empty, and she just knew something is definitely wrong,
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Speaker 1: and so she turned right around and drove to the
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Speaker 1: police station. However, when Alison reported her husband was missing
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Speaker 1: to the police, it was immediately clear to her that
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Speaker 1: the police were not really that concerned. Ray was an
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Speaker 1: adult who had apparently left the house of his own volition.
9:43
Speaker 1: He also hadn't even been gone for a full twenty
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Speaker 1: four hours yet, so the police took down Alison's report
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Speaker 1: and they did tell her they would look for him,
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Speaker 1: but she just felt like they were not nearly as
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Speaker 1: concerned as she was.
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Speaker 2: But Alison and Ray's friends and family.
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Speaker 1: Were definitely concerned, and over the next few days they
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Speaker 1: flocked to Baltimore to support Alison and also to help
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Speaker 1: look for Ray. They drove all around the city literally
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Speaker 1: looking for Ray, but they didn't see any sign of
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Speaker 1: him anywhere. They called local hospitals and asked about any
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Speaker 1: John Does who maybe had come in, but none of
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Speaker 1: them matched raised description. They also checked Ray's bank records,
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Speaker 1: but he hadn't used any of his cards.
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Speaker 2: Since he had disappeared.
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Speaker 1: And as days passed with no new information and no
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Speaker 1: new updates from police, Alison only got more and more desperate,
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Speaker 1: and so finally, one afternoon, a couple of days after
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Speaker 1: Ray first went missing, she just started looking through her
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Speaker 1: own house looking for any clues about where Ray had gone,
10:41
Speaker 1: and eventually, when she was in that room where Ray
10:44
Speaker 1: had been in his computer when Claudia had heard him
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Speaker 1: swear into the phone and bolt.
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Speaker 2: Out of the house.
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Speaker 1: In that room, at Ray's desk, she did find something strange.
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Speaker 1: It was this piece of paper that was folded up
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Speaker 1: really small, and it was wrapped in plastic and taped
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Speaker 1: to the back of his computer monitor.
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Speaker 2: And so Alison peeled off the tape.
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Speaker 1: She opened up the bag and she unwrapped the paper,
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Speaker 1: and what she found is it was a typed letter
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Speaker 1: addressed to quote brothers and sisters. And then the actual
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Speaker 1: contents of this letter made absolutely no sense. It referenced
11:19
Speaker 1: some kind of secret society called the Council. It talked
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Speaker 1: about secrets in some kind of game, and it also
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Speaker 1: contained three lists, one with technologies like Wi Fi and Bluetooth,
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Speaker 1: there was one with a bunch of movie titles that
11:34
Speaker 1: seemed to be completely random, And also there was one
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Speaker 1: with names of real people, but they included celebrities and
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Speaker 1: also some of Ray's family members. Now, to any random person,
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Speaker 1: this note would have probably looked pretty unhinged, maybe even
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Speaker 1: like a possible manifestation of serious mental illness. But to
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Speaker 1: Alison it actually didn't read that way. She knew Ray
11:57
Speaker 1: was very interested in conspiracies and secret societies from a
12:01
Speaker 1: creative standpoint, and so after a brief moment of confusion
12:05
Speaker 1: when she first read this thing, she decided, you know,
12:08
Speaker 1: maybe this document was him collecting ideas for a new screenplay.
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Speaker 1: It wouldn't have surprised her at all if he was
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Speaker 1: trying to write a script about the Council, whatever that was.
12:18
Speaker 1: But what did surprise Alison was the way this letter
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Speaker 1: was printed, folded up, and then taped to the computer.
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Speaker 2: It just seemed so weird.
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Speaker 1: So Alison actually took the note to the police station
12:29
Speaker 1: and handed it over to the officer in charge of
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Speaker 1: Ray's case. The officer took it as evidence and said
12:35
Speaker 1: they'd be in touch.
12:35
Speaker 2: With her about it.
12:36
Speaker 1: But they weren't in touch, and more days went by
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Speaker 1: and Ray didn't show up, and there were no updates
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Speaker 1: from police, and so Alison really didn't know what to do.
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Speaker 2: But then on May.
12:46
Speaker 1: Twenty second, so six days after Ray disappeared, Alison was
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Speaker 1: at home when she got a call from her parents.
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Speaker 1: They said they'd been driving around the city looking for
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Speaker 1: Ray and they had found something Betterhelp is the paid
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Speaker 1: partner of today's video heaviness in your life doesn't usually
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Speaker 2: Typically, it just sort of hits you.
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Speaker 1: For example, when I left the military and had to
13:12
Speaker 1: reintegrate back into civilian life, that meant I was leaving
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Speaker 1: behind a clear mission. I was leaving behind tight knit
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Speaker 1: bonds and an identity that was built on service and purpose,
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Speaker 1: while I was also trying to find my place in
13:26
Speaker 1: a world that felt very unfamiliar. And so this made
13:29
Speaker 1: me carry this really deep emotional weight that I was
13:32
Speaker 1: not expecting now At the time, I kind of told
13:35
Speaker 1: myself that that feeling, that heaviness inside of me, that
13:39
Speaker 1: it would just sort of pass with time, you know,
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Speaker 1: But it didn't, and eventually I began to wonder, like,
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Speaker 1: why am I still struggling with this? Why do I
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14:06
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14:09
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Speaker 1: month and take a step toward feeling lighter. In twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty six, A few minutes later, Alison skid it into
14:57
Speaker 1: a parking lot in downtown Baltimore, parked.
15:00
Speaker 2: Her car right next to her parents car.
15:02
Speaker 1: The area was swarming with police officers and news vans,
15:06
Speaker 1: and through this chaotic crowd, Alison could see.
15:10
Speaker 2: What they were all looking at.
15:12
Speaker 1: It was raised car, and so Alison jumped out of
15:14
Speaker 1: her vehicle and she ran to the nearest police officer
15:17
Speaker 1: and she asked them what was going on, and they
15:20
Speaker 1: told her after Allison's parents had called her about Raised car,
15:23
Speaker 1: that was the thing they had found. They'd called the
15:25
Speaker 1: police and officers had come to investigate, and they discovered
15:29
Speaker 1: that Rai's car had a parking ticket on the windshield
15:33
Speaker 1: that showed it had been parked in this lot for
15:35
Speaker 1: six days, so since the evening of May sixteenth, which
15:38
Speaker 1: meant raised car had been right here since the night
15:42
Speaker 1: he'd gone missing, which was May sixteenth. The officer told
15:45
Speaker 1: her that none of Ray's belongings, like his phone or
15:48
Speaker 1: his money clip, were inside the vehicle, and there was
15:51
Speaker 1: no sign of a break in, so they weren't stolen
15:53
Speaker 1: from the vehicle. So on the surface, it appeared that
15:57
Speaker 1: on the night Ray went missing, he'd driven here, parked
16:00
Speaker 1: in this lot, gotten out.
16:03
Speaker 2: But after that, nobody knows what happened.
16:06
Speaker 1: This discovery sent Allison's fear and panic to a whole
16:09
Speaker 1: new level, and it also seemed to make the police
16:12
Speaker 1: and the public take Ray's disappearance much more seriously. All
16:16
Speaker 1: of a sudden, people all over the city were looking
16:19
Speaker 1: for Ray, and two days later, on May twenty fourth,
16:22
Speaker 1: so this is eight days into Rai's disappearance, a volunteer
16:26
Speaker 1: search party decided to go onto the roof of a
16:28
Speaker 1: downtown parking garage to get a better view of the
16:31
Speaker 1: city to help with their search for Ray. When they
16:33
Speaker 1: got up there, they saw something that if it had
16:37
Speaker 1: to do with Ray, it was very dark, and so
16:40
Speaker 1: they called the police. Adjacent to this parking garage was
16:44
Speaker 1: a historic building called the Belvidere.
16:47
Speaker 2: It used to be a hotel, but now it was
16:49
Speaker 2: just a condo complex.
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Speaker 1: The Belvidere at its highest point was thirteen stories high,
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Speaker 1: but it also had a smaller section that was still
16:56
Speaker 1: a part of the Belvidere that was just two stories high,
17:00
Speaker 1: and they kind of butted up against the thirteen story section.
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Speaker 1: From the top of the parking garage where the search
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Speaker 1: party was, they could see the Belvidere, of course, but
17:09
Speaker 1: they could also look down and see the roof of
17:12
Speaker 1: the smaller section of the Belvidere. They could see the
17:15
Speaker 1: very top of that building, and on the roof they
17:19
Speaker 1: saw four things. A pair of flipflops, a pair of glasses,
17:24
Speaker 1: a cell phone, and a very obvious hole in the roof.
17:29
Speaker 1: Within the hour, a detective named Michael Bher and a
17:32
Speaker 1: team of Baltimore PD officers followed a concierge down the
17:36
Speaker 1: hallway of the Belvidere Hotel building. When Detective Byar and
17:39
Speaker 1: his team had arrived, they'd asked the building staff about
17:42
Speaker 1: a hole in the roof of that two story section
17:44
Speaker 1: of the Belvidere, but none of them knew what the
17:46
Speaker 1: police were talking about. The employee said that that two
17:49
Speaker 1: story section of the hotel where the hole apparently was
17:52
Speaker 1: was closed off and had been for a long time,
17:55
Speaker 1: so nobody, at least none of them had gone over there,
17:58
Speaker 1: not anytime recently, and so they really couldn't speak to
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Speaker 1: there being a hole or not.
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Speaker 2: It was possible, but nobody knew.
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Speaker 1: And on top of that, nobody, not staff or guests,
18:07
Speaker 1: had reported seeing or hearing anything strange in the last
18:10
Speaker 1: week and a half, so there was no indication that
18:13
Speaker 1: damage had been done really anywhere in the hotel. But
18:16
Speaker 1: now the concierge led Detective Bayer and his team down
18:19
Speaker 1: several winding hallways and through a series of locked doors
18:23
Speaker 1: until eventually they reached the room that corresponded to where
18:27
Speaker 1: the hole in the roof was, and as soon as
18:29
Speaker 1: the concierge unlocked that door that would lead into that room.
18:33
Speaker 1: Detective Bayar and his team were hit by a horrible smell.
18:37
Speaker 1: They went inside to this big, large, empty room that
18:40
Speaker 1: looked like it once had been a conference room, and
18:42
Speaker 1: daylight was streaming down through the hole in the roof,
18:46
Speaker 1: and the light was shining.
18:48
Speaker 2: Directly on Ray Rivera's body.
18:50
Speaker 1: Ray was lying on the floor, face up, surrounded by
18:53
Speaker 1: dried blood, and his body was mangled. One of his
18:57
Speaker 1: legs had been broken so badly that the bone were
19:00
Speaker 1: sticking up at odd angles, and he was very badly decomposed,
19:04
Speaker 1: and so obviously was responsible for the smell. At first glance,
19:07
Speaker 1: Detective Bayer is looking at Ray's body, He's looking at
19:09
Speaker 1: the roof and he's thinking, Okay, clearly Ray fell through
19:14
Speaker 1: the roof down here, That's how he's got here.
19:16
Speaker 2: He came through the roof.
19:18
Speaker 1: But when police examined the hole and also those items
19:21
Speaker 1: that the search party had literally seen from their vantage
19:24
Speaker 1: point on the roof, the glasses, the flip flops, and
19:27
Speaker 1: the cell phone, and then also when they did an
19:30
Speaker 1: autopsy on Ray's body, they realized that it actually was
19:34
Speaker 1: physically impossible for Ray to have come through the hole
19:38
Speaker 1: into this room because there were only three possible places
19:42
Speaker 1: that Ray could have fallen or jumped from to land
19:45
Speaker 1: on the belvidere's roof where the hole was, and none
19:49
Speaker 1: of them made sense when compared to the evidence that
19:51
Speaker 1: police had. The first possibility was that Ray had fallen
19:54
Speaker 1: or jumped from the very top of the Belvidere.
19:57
Speaker 2: Which is thirteen stories tall.
19:59
Speaker 1: A'll fall from that height would definitely have killed him
20:01
Speaker 1: and cause the devastating injuries found in the autopsy, like
20:04
Speaker 1: broken legs, a broken skull, broken ribs. But the edge
20:08
Speaker 1: of the thirteenth story roof was forty five feet away
20:12
Speaker 1: horizontally from the hole in the second story roof, and
20:16
Speaker 1: so from a physics perspective, it was basically impossible that
20:20
Speaker 1: Ray could have somehow gone fast enough and then leapt
20:23
Speaker 1: off the roof as fast and as far as he
20:25
Speaker 1: could that he could have carried himself forty five feet
20:29
Speaker 1: forward before plummeting down and hitting the roof. That's just
20:32
Speaker 1: too far of a distance for a person to jump.
20:35
Speaker 1: The second possibility was that Ray maybe had gone off
20:39
Speaker 1: of a thin decorative ledge that wrapped around the outside
20:42
Speaker 1: of the Belvidere on the eleventh floor. If Ray fell
20:45
Speaker 1: from there, he could have landed in the spot where
20:47
Speaker 1: the hole was. However, that ledge was impossible to access
20:52
Speaker 1: without first going through a privately owned condo or office.
20:56
Speaker 1: Ray would have had to be physically let in, But again,
20:59
Speaker 1: nobody in any part of the building had reported seeing
21:02
Speaker 1: or interacting with him. And the third possibility was that
21:05
Speaker 1: Ray had gone off the top of that same parking
21:08
Speaker 1: garage that the search party had been at. It was
21:11
Speaker 1: close enough horizontally that, you know, Ray could have landed
21:14
Speaker 1: in the spot where the hole was, But the very
21:17
Speaker 1: top of that parking garage was only about twenty feet
21:20
Speaker 1: above the second story roof of the Belvidere, which was
21:24
Speaker 1: obviously enough of a height to fall to have serious
21:27
Speaker 1: damage done to your body. But that's not enough of
21:30
Speaker 1: a fall to cause the extreme injuries that were found
21:34
Speaker 1: on Ray's body.
21:35
Speaker 2: It just wasn't enough. And then to make this whole
21:37
Speaker 2: situation even.
21:38
Speaker 1: Stranger, when police examined those items that were found on
21:42
Speaker 1: the roof, raised flip flops, his glasses, and cell phone,
21:45
Speaker 1: they found that all the items were not you know,
21:48
Speaker 1: helter Skelter sort of cast around as if he blasted
21:51
Speaker 1: through the roof and everything.
21:52
Speaker 2: Fell off of him.
21:52
Speaker 1: No, they were sort of organized, placed neatly on the
21:57
Speaker 1: roof like they had been staged on purpose, and also
22:00
Speaker 1: raised classes and phone were not damaged at all. So
22:03
Speaker 1: it just sort of begged the question, how could this
22:06
Speaker 1: have happened? You know, how did he fall in the
22:08
Speaker 1: first place? How did he wind up in this room?
22:10
Speaker 1: But even if you identify where he fell from or
22:13
Speaker 1: how he fell, how did his belongings wind up place
22:16
Speaker 1: so neatly on the roof like that without.
22:18
Speaker 2: Any damage, It just didn't add up.
22:20
Speaker 1: And so the police didn't know what to make of
22:22
Speaker 1: any of this, and so they turned their attention back
22:24
Speaker 1: to a totally different piece of evidence, that weird note
22:28
Speaker 1: that Alison had found taped to the back of Ray's
22:30
Speaker 1: computer in their home, and so they sent that note
22:33
Speaker 1: to the FBI for analysis, hoping it would tell them something.
22:37
Speaker 2: And it did.
22:38
Speaker 1: The FBI said that, based on the note, Ray was
22:42
Speaker 1: likely mentally ill and experiencing some kind of psychotic episode.
22:46
Speaker 1: This was not like a screenplay. This was, you know,
22:48
Speaker 1: manifestation of something off in his mind. And the police,
22:52
Speaker 1: you know, this didn't really answer all their questions, but
22:55
Speaker 1: it was sort of a relief. It seemed like, you know,
22:57
Speaker 1: this sort of generally answered a very complicated and confusing situation. Basically,
23:04
Speaker 1: this was enough for the Baltimore PD to stop investigating,
23:07
Speaker 1: although they didn't actually officially close the case and tell
23:11
Speaker 1: Ray's wife, Alison and her family that Ray's death as
23:15
Speaker 1: bizarre as it is, even though we don't.
23:17
Speaker 2: Really know how it happened, what we do know is
23:19
Speaker 2: that it most likely was a suicide.
23:22
Speaker 1: But Alison was not satisfied with this explanation because one,
23:26
Speaker 1: it still didn't answer the question of where Ray had
23:29
Speaker 1: fallen from. That seemed like an important thing to answer,
23:32
Speaker 1: and two, she didn't think Ray was mentally ill, and
23:35
Speaker 1: she was certain he had not killed himself. Allison's theory
23:38
Speaker 1: was that her husband was murdered very likely because of
23:42
Speaker 1: his job. Here he is parading around like he's got
23:45
Speaker 1: great investment advice, and he's pumping out his tips into
23:48
Speaker 1: that newsletter that she knows and he knows are basically fraudulent.
23:53
Speaker 1: He doesn't know anything about investing. The opportunity to basically
23:57
Speaker 1: screw over subscribers was pretty high. People are taking his
24:00
Speaker 1: advice and they could be losing money because of it,
24:03
Speaker 1: and so it seemed entirely possible that somebody who was
24:07
Speaker 1: disgruntled over his bad advice came after him. And then
24:10
Speaker 1: also adding to the idea that like this was not
24:14
Speaker 1: you know, self harmed, that something bad happened to Ray
24:17
Speaker 1: from an outside source. There was that strange phone call
24:21
Speaker 1: that Claudia the friend overheard him have when he said
24:24
Speaker 1: oh shit and then ran out the house. The police
24:27
Speaker 1: were able to trace that particular call back to Stansbury
24:30
Speaker 1: and Associates, the investment firm where Ray worked, but they
24:34
Speaker 1: were never able to figure out who had placed it
24:36
Speaker 1: or why, because as soon as detectives began asking questions
24:40
Speaker 1: of this firm well, Stansbury and Associates hired attorneys and
24:44
Speaker 1: told its employees not to speak about what happened to anyone,
24:48
Speaker 1: not even the police. And so to this day, Ray's
24:51
Speaker 1: case remains officially unsolved. But somewhere out there is the
24:55
Speaker 1: person who placed that final phone call to Ray. This
24:59
Speaker 1: person you must know why Ray ran out of his
25:02
Speaker 1: house in a panic that night, and they might even know.
25:04
Speaker 2: How he died or who killed him.
25:07
Speaker 1: But as of now, that person has not come forward.
25:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching.
25:18
Speaker 2: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
25:20
Speaker 2: the comments.
25:21
Speaker 1: And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to
25:23
Speaker 1: binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation
25:27
Speaker 1: for me of that one video that's worth your time,
25:30
Speaker 1: well it's this one right here, So give it a watch.
25:33
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see y